House tour: the fairytale château of Les Trois Garcons

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Stefan Karlson, Hassan Abdullah and Michel Lasserre met in the early 1990s and went on to launch an antique store (Maison Trois Garcons), a successful restaurant (Les Trois Garcons), a hot London bar (Loungelover) and an international interior design practice (L3G Designs) before they found and fell in love with Château de la Goujeonnerie in the Vendée, France in 2006. Built in 1872 by the architect Arsene Charier for the local mayor and his family, it boasted 22 rooms over three floors, its own lake and views of rolling green hills in the distance. Sadly though, it had fallen into a state of disrepair; so the trio spent five years re-plumbing, re-wiring and restoring it from top to bottom.

The château’s interior is now filled with pieces that span centuries and continents, placed in an eclectic style emphasising symmetry and beauty. In the dining room is a table that once belonged in a Paris library, from the Clignacourt antiques market. Baroque mirrors from Lisbon, and plasterwork and columns from London complete the setting, lit in the evenings by four Italian chandeliers, circa 1810. Although the renovation respects the past, 21st-century needs are provided for — the château’s basement houses an extensive gym and massage room/sauna, and next to the kitchen is a vast multimedia room.

The panelled salon features an 18th-century English sofa and Swedish armchair, both covered in Lelièvre fabrics; a Fontana Arte coffee table from the 1960s; a 1940s Venetian cabinet displaying Meissen, Sitzendorf and Samson porcelain; and an antique Venetian glass chandelier.

In the first-floor corridor, custom-made silk drapes with hand embroidery and velvet appliqué by English Home hang behind a Victorian-era gilded pelmet from a l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue antiques dealer. The Italian black lacquered 1950s cabinet in the foreground was purchased from an antiques dealer in Toulouse and the English swan wall light in bronze and glass dates from the 1900s. On the left side, a black Maison Jansen sideboard from the 1950s houses a rare 19th-century Chinese vase; on the marble table is a crimson Victorian vase from Alfies Antique Market in London. Above, a contemporary work by Jonathan Wateridge, from the Saatchi Gallery contrasts with a French 19th-century painting purchased from Christie's at the end of the corridor.

In the pink bedroom, a 19th-century French bed has been covered in embroidered silk from Lelièvre. On the mantlepiece is a pair of Samson figurines, a pair of 18th-century Delft vases and an early 19th-century bronze and marble clock shaped like Cupid. The palm tree chandelier is by Josef Hoffman circa 1914.

The magnificent four-poster bed in this room came from a château in Blois in the Loire Valley; it has been re-covered in Lelièvre red velvet in the same shade as the original. It’s set off by an English Regency gilded chandelier and a Chinese carved sofa and armchair set. The 17th-century chest was purchased in Sweden.

A William IV four-poster bed dominates the English bedroom and is adorned with a beaded, gold-threaded Indian bedspread from Dubai. A 1950s lamp, its base of a ship in a jar, sits atop a '30s Chinoiserie cocktail cabinet. The painting of a French officer was found folded in an antique dealer’s storage in Ile de Ré, off France's west coast, and restored by the trio. The ’20s wall lights are from a theatre in the British seaside town of Brighton.

The château’s only dark room is the oak-panelled library, painted black and filled with a mix of mid- and 19th-century furniture, eras also represented across the huge collection of vases from Europe and Japan, including many by Vallauris — the potters for Picasso when he made pottery. A pair of ironwood ’50s elephant chairs from Bali and an 18th-century Swedish Gustavian sofa surround the ’60s coffee table by Tommaso Barbi. The floor lamp and chandelier are from VG New Trend, discovered at Maison et Objet furniture fair in Paris. On the mantle a 19th-century French gilded mirror frames Fantasia Arabe, an Arab soldier on horseback in bronze by French sculptor Prosper Lecourtier, also 19th-century.

The breakfast room is decorated with early 20th-century plaster hat moulds and enamelled dessert moulds from England. A 1950s German lightbox, which shows the process of milking a cow, sits atop a 19th-century English display cabinet housing Spode china.

Cole & Son gold-leaf wallpaper sets the tone in the gold salon, where a painting of a windmill by English artist Robert W Hill, purchased from an antiques dealer in London, sits atop the mantle. Also featured are a lyre-shaped fireguard circa 1820 from Rehns Antiques in Stockholm and a marble bust from a dealer in Brussels. A bull's head sculpture, one of a pair made for an opera in the 1940s, sits on a demilune table by Maison Jansen. A 1940s parrot lamp is perched on an 18th-century painted Venetian cabinet; the glass and metal Svend Aage Holm Sorensen floor lamps are from the 1960s.

In another part of the gold salon, an oil painting of Napoleon’s son hangs above a 19th-century porcelain swan from Sintra, Portugal. An Italian beaded chandelier and Lobmeyr crystal and mirrored wall sconce from 1940s Austria, a 19th-century Italian throne chair, 18th-century French bronze-inlay table and a 1950s Swedish glass bubble sculpture complete the decadent picture.

The château’s huge heated outdoor pool nestles among vegetable and rose gardens, and the completion of its ancillary buildings has boosted the number of bedrooms from 10 to a staggering 27. When they are not enjoying its considerable comforts themselves, the trio rent out their exuberant, decadent and occasionally eccentric home for holidays and parties — starting at about $50,000 per week!

For more information about Château de la Goujeonnerie and other projects by Les Trois Garcons, visit their website.

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